Question by Haja: Why were the Soviet Military and Civilian casualties in World War 2 so high?
Were the Soviet people themselves resisting the invasion that’s why they died?
If Stalingrad was being invaded by the Nazis, and they were defeated..why did so many civilians die still? How did the Soviets win the battle of Stalingrad?I heard more than 1 million people died of starvation?
Photo Credit: Marion Doss 
Answers and Views:
Answer by jamesmom
They didn’t have weapons and were mown down by the Nazis, whoever survived was slapped into a labor camp where they were worked to death.
Answer by lee
So many died because Germans were invading and Russians who retreated even civilians were executed by Stalin’s orders. In a World War, there are no civilians in a country being attacked mercilessly. Stalin had little to no food and supplies for his troops but he was swimming in lives. He killed citizens who wouldn’t defend their homes from hardened veteran Nazi troops in Leningrad causing over a million casualties and he threw ill-equipped untrained troops at hardened Nazi fortified lines, given orders to pick up the gun of the men who were killed in the lines in front of the unarmed soldiers.
There are no sides in WW2 with clean hands, much like war in the middle-east.. if people rig explosives to children and send them in front of troop convoys to explode when they stop…. how many of those do they have to deal with before troops have to gun down children in the road? Wars with desperate tactics require ruthless tactics…
Stalin ended up on the allies side but not because he was a good person sometimes alliance of necessity makes for weird bedfellows.
Answer by gaylene B
Perhaps the fact that Hitler had a policy of killing rather than capturing troops and civilians – and so did Stalin. When Hitler swept East into Russia he was initially greeted as a liberator by many people; By killing so many civilians, those people soon realized that Hitler’s intent was to wipe out all the people he could in the area, so that he would have room for his “so-called” Aryan race to move into.
When the Russians moved back into the areas, Hitler ordered a “burnt earth policy” on the German retreat. Read about the Nazi atrocities towards Soviet soldiers; it’s no wonder that Stalin allowed his troops to behave to Germans exactly the same as the Germans had to the Soviets. It was a hideous brutal war.
Stalin was leading from the rear (the Kremlin) – threatening to kill any Soviet soldier that deserted.
Frankly, neither side was gentle or kind to the losers in the Eastern front of WWII.
Answer by armouror2000
Stalin had amassed an ill-equipped army of over 7 million to coincide with D Day and he said something like there will be no retreat.
there stories of Political officers shooting those that tried to regroup.
a Good Movie is “Enemy at the Gates”.
after what the Nazis did to the Russians the NAZIS expected 100 fold in return and they were not far wrong.
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lee says
The comment has been moved into the body of the post.
Kirill says
It is so amazing when people ask this question. Why so many deaths during the war? I see only 2 options. 1) Aggressor (Hitler) was the cause. 2) Dependent (Stalin) was the cause.
Now if Hitler was the cause that’s very reasonable. If Stalin was the cause, thats also reasonable. Since we NOW all know that Stalin ate small babies for dinner and killed people in the mornings. (by millions).
JosF says
Stalin didn't give a hoot for human lives.
In Stalingrad untrained men were send directly into battle. They were issued 1 rifle for every 2 or 3 men. When no. 1 was gunned down, no. 2 picked up the rifle and continued to shoot it. When he was shot down, no. 3 would pick it up until he was shot.
If survivors retreated or crawled back, they were machine-gunned by their own troops (usually NKVD).
That was not by accident, it was intentional policy ordered or approved of by Stalin himself.
Kirill says
LOL. Is this from a movie? I hear Salin crawled into people houses at night and ate them all (30.000.000) alive!